A corporate memo from AMD's CEO claims the company's executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer leaves September 8

AMD’s Henri Richard plans to step down from his position as executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer, according to an executive memo forwarded to DailyTech and confirmed by CNET. Richard’s resignation takes effect on September 8.

Richard’s resignation follows last month’s resignation of AMD’s Executive Vice President, Dave Orton. Orton was the former president and chief executive officer of ATI before the merger.

AMD has had a rough year in the CPU and graphics department. Despite a “successful integration” of the two companies, according to Orton, the company faced dramatic delays with its CPUs, chipsets and GPUs.

In its battle with Intel, the company touted the superior native quad-core Barcelona design, but has not launched a single quad-core processor. The company also faced delays with its AMD 690G chipset, which finally launched in February, despite expectations of a 2006 launch. AMD’s HD 2000 series also faced major launch delays, allowing NVIDIA to have a five-month head start in the DirectX 10 markets.

AMD has yet to issue an official press release regarding the matter, nor has the company named a suitable replacement. An internal email, sent from Hector Ruiz to all AMD employees, reads the following:

We are sad to announce that Henri Richard has made the decision to leave AMD.

When Henri joined AMD in 2002, his primary mission was to establish a world class global Sales and Marketing organization. It is safe to say that he has accomplished that mission, and he is now ready for a new challenge in his career. While we will certainly miss him, it’s a measure of his success that the organization he leaves behind is fully poised to succeed and capable of maintaining and building the momentum that we built.

In the last five years, we have increased exponentially our global account foot print, acquiring customers of every caliber including the top PC and server OEMs around the world. In fact, from Toshiba and Acer to Lenovo, Dell, Sun and HP, we have become a critical strategic partner to our customers and a key component of enterprise solutions and consumer products worldwide.

Commensurate with this growth in our business, and the strength of our corporate and product brands. We have a Sales and Marketing organization that can support and continue to grow our strategic importance to our customers. Nevertheless, we know this was a difficult decision for Henri, especially as we are poised to enjoy the successes of our acquisition of ATI, our upcoming quad-core Barcelona product and our strong product and technology roadmaps.

Henri’s official departure date is still pending, and we will communicate a leadership plan shortly.

Look for a Q&A with Henri to appear on AMD Online in the next day or two. Henri will discuss AMD’s accomplishments over the last five years, and our Phenomenal opportunities moving forward.

Please join us in thanking Henri for his leadership and wishing him well in his post-AMD career.

No official reasoning was mentioned by Ruiz for Richard's departure. Richard's departure comes at a critical time; right in the middle of the upcoming Barcelona launch this quarter and Phenom FX by the end of the year.